Good afternoon all,

Im a numbers and stats person so frankly going through every teams lists and making some charts heres what I found:

Melbourne Rankings

Measure Calculation Stat Ranking Who is top

Experience infront of goals Sum of career goals kicked by players 965 goals 16/18 Sydney 2505

Experience on field Sum of careergames by players 2037 games 16/18 Fremantle 3199

Maturity Average Age of all players 23.6 years 16/18 Brisbane 24.92

Fattest Team Average Weight of all players 86.25 kg 13/18 Collingwood 88.54

Tallest Team Average Height of all players 187.63 cm 14/18 Fremantle 189.28

Age Closeness of Players Standard Deviage of ages 3.18 2/18 GWS 2.59

Taking out GWS and Gold Coast, we have the youngest list, we have the least amount of experience kicking goals and the least amount of games out of any other club.

Interestingly, apart from GWS, our players are closest in age respective to one another than any club as most of our players are between 21 and 25. In other words our ages are spread out the least. Can this mean they boys can grow as a team together?

I did the exact same analysis before the 2013 season, got similar results and look where we ended up.

Please dont hesitate to ask if you have any ideas for other stats you'd like to see.

From all these stats I'd be interested to hear everyones conclusions......

Cheers

Matt the Stat Man

Well, I feel threatened...

Some stats are going to give you a clearer picture of progress in 2014 than the ones you have listed. Games experience for example is fine, but linear, and doesn't tell you how you play, only who you are playing ie. lots of kids...

I will be keeping a close eye on UPs, CPs, clearances, I50s, maybe tackles, and I also will be looking at how we go relatively to our opponent.

Interesting stuff. The concern I have is that, due to our young list, we'll be peaking at the same time as the GC & GWS. Given their concesions, early picks, & talent it will be an incredibly tough period to take the ultimate prize. Need a bit of luck and great development and we'll hopefully (eventually) get there!

Interesting stuff. The concern I have is that, due to our young list, we'll be peaking at the same time as the GC & GWS. Given their concesions, early picks, & talent it will be an incredibly tough period to take the ultimate prize. Need a bit of luck and great development and we'll hopefully (eventually) get there!

JS I am just aiming to be competitive at this stage. Not thinking about the ultimate goal yet.

Nice work Matt.

The most interesting for me is the age variance stat, I guess we have very few 'veterans'' (possibly Cross our only over 30?)

Never seen a 'fattest team' stat before, lucky this wasnt around during Dean Riolis playing days!

We've been aware of our list's lack of experience which Mark Neeld highlighted during his time as a coach. It's a fact that we have to live with as a result of years of poor recruiting, player and team development and a lack of care taken in the preparation of leaders at the club. Particularly damning is our lack of a single star player despite several years of early draft picks. I'm sure that Roos knows exactly what he has to deal with in this respect.

It would be interesting to compare our figures with those of the Western Bulldogs who seem to be the flavour of the off season with many pundits because of their late season "improvement" under Brendan McCartney (that's despite them losing to us in round 14 and beating a depleted side by 20 points in round 23). The Doggies do have some impressive young players but their performances have been underpinned by a large brigade of experienced players;

200+ games - Matthew Boyd, Adam Cooney, Daniel Giansiracusa and Robert Murphy.

150+ games - Ryan Griffen, Will Minson and Dale Morris.

They also have the relatively inexperienced (in terms of AFL games) Brett Goodes who turns 30 during the off season.

This suggests that it won't be long before the Bulldogs will have to start replacing a large body of talent and experience.

By comparison, Melbourne has only one 200 gamer (Daniel Cross!) and Nathan Jones recently passed 150 games.

Despite the optimism many have for the Doggies, on what I saw of both lists last year and based on our recruiting, I'm confident we'll surpass them (and some others) this year, despite our inexperience.

JS I am just aiming to be competitive at this stage. Not thinking about the ultimate goal yet.

Gotta say, whilst I agree that our first focus would be copmetitivness and not wanting to leave at half time each week, I agree with Jock Strap and was about to post something similar.

Ultimatley, were in this competition with the aim to stake the ultimate prize. It concerns me that due to the age of our players, our window will overlap two teams that have had far better access to players than us.

Nice work Matt.

The most interesting for me is the age variance stat, I guess we have very few 'veterans'' (possibly Cross our only over 30?)

The Russian is 30 and Shannon Byrnes turns 30 in April.

Thanks Matt the Stat Man

If you'd like to hunt down some more stats, I'd be intrigued to know the relationship between Dream team points and on field success. Is there a relationship between the Dream team points of players at the end of a season and the performance of a team in the following? That is, can you add up Dream team points for, say, the top 25 players at a club and get a sense of where they might finish in the next year? We have recruited a few blokes who must have pretty high scores.

You might get a sense of the value - or otherwise - in this by comparing Hawthorn's 2012 end of year player Dream team totals with Melbourne's.

Thanks Matt the Stat Man

If you'd like to hunt down some more stats, I'd be intrigued to know the relationship between Dream team points and on field success. Is there a relationship between the Dream team points of players at the end of a season and the performance of a team in the following? That is, can you add up Dream team points for, say, the top 25 players at a club and get a sense of where they might finish in the next year? We have recruited a few blokes who must have pretty high scores.

You might get a sense of the value - or otherwise - in this by comparing Hawthorn's 2012 end of year player Dream team totals with Melbourne's.

Dreamteam points are not dynamic, you just get certain amounts of points for kicks, handballs, and marks - no matter when or where those marks are taken or what you do with those kicks and handballs.

Supercoach uses Champion Data to score which does take into account these things, but even that doesn't give true worth. Tom McDonald could have 10 touches and towel up Riewoldt but Dreamteam or Supercoach does not reward him.

At some point, one's own subjective analysis has to be used to judge players and teams - in lieu of non-existent perfect stats.

Dreamteam points are not dynamic, you just get certain amounts of points for kicks, handballs, and marks - no matter when or where those marks are taken or what you do with those kicks and handballs.

Supercoach uses Champion Data to score which does take into account these things, but even that doesn't give true worth. Tom McDonald could have 10 touches and towel up Riewoldt but Dreamteam or Supercoach does not reward him.

At some point, one's own subjective analysis has to be used to judge players and teams - in lieu of non-existent perfect stats.

Conpletely agree with you there. Dream team is not a good judge on overall performance whereas supercoach is (to an extent for most) exc. key position players. From a supercoach perspective I always avoid the tall key defenders and forwards as it never pays their true worth e.g. no points for a spoil and unless if the FF kicks 4-5 goals a game they rarely get over 100.

Btw. Thank you Matt the Stat man, I'm always a fan of crunching numbers. Although can I please make a suggestion (it might be just me as I'm reading off my phone), but I'm having trouble reading the layout of the stats so next time could you please load them in as a picture (maybe a screen shot from a spreadshee.

Cheers, and keep the good work coming

"Fattest Team "

lol

Btw. Thank you Matt the Stat man, I'm always a fan of crunching numbers. Although can I please make a suggestion (it might be just me as I'm reading off my phone), but I'm having trouble reading the layout of the stats so next time could you please load them in as a picture (maybe a screen shot from a spreadshee.

Cheers, and keep the good work coming

On the PC today Matt and all looks fine, please disregard my suggestion.